Parrot Tricks: Teaching Parrots with Positive Reinforcement [Hardcover]

Tani Robar (Author), Diane Grindol (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 6, 2006

KEEP YOUR PARROT STIMULATED AND ACTIVE, AND HE WILL KEEP YOU ENTERTAINED!

By nature, parrots are inquisitive, intelligent, and social animals. You can capitalize on these characteristics and obedience train your bird, teaching him behaviors that will make your life and his more enjoyable--behaviors such as stepping on your hand or wrist on command, and going to a designated perch. Then you can progress to teach him all kinds of tricks. He'll love the attention, communication, and socialization. From the essential basics of obedience training to awesome tricks that will amuse and amaze your friends, Parrot Tricks covers:
* Techniques to use during the "get acquainted" period
* Setting up a training area and using food as a training tool
* Training basics such as targeting, luring, and using cues
* Necessary obedience skills such as step up, come, perch, and stay
* The basic retrieve command, the foundation of many tricks
* Simple tricks such as shake hands, high five, kiss, and take a bow
* Tricks based on the retrieve command, including basketball, ring on the peg, and stacking cups
* Advanced tricks such as pulling a wagon, pushing a grocery cart, raising a flag, and riding a skateboard
* Innovative tricks that showcase your bird's natural abilities
* Chaining tricks, such as recycling and going to the mailbox
* Verbalizations and talking using the Rival/Model Method or the Positive Reward Method
* Directions for making simple props


With this book, patience, and practice, you'll build your understanding of and relationship with your bird as you build a repertoire of tricks. You can get your parrot to jump through hoops for you--literally!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

KEEP YOUR PARROT STIMULATED AND ACTIVE, AND HE WILL KEEP YOU ENTERTAINED!

By nature, parrots are inquisitive, intelligent, and social animals. You can capitalize on these characteristics and obedience train your bird, teaching him behaviors that will make your life and his more enjoyable—behaviors such as stepping on your hand or wrist on command, and going to a designated perch. Then you can progress to teach him all kinds of tricks. He'll love the attention, communication, and socialization. From the essential basics of obedience training to awesome tricks that will amuse and amaze your friends, Parrot Tricks covers:

• Techniques to use during the "get acquainted" period
• Setting up a training area and using food as a training tool
• Training basics such as targeting, luring, and using cues
• Necessary obedience skills such as step up, come, perch, and stay
• The basic retrieve command, the foundation of many tricks
• Simple tricks such as shake hands, high five, kiss, and take a bow
• Tricks based on the retrieve command, including basketball, ring on the peg, and stacking cups
• Advanced tricks such as pulling a wagon, pushing a grocery cart, raising a flag, and riding a skateboard
• Innovative tricks that showcase your bird's natural abilities
• Chaining tricks, such as recycling and going to the mailbox
• Verbalizations and talking using the Rival/Model Method or the Positive Reward Method
• Directions for making simple props

With this book, patience, and practice, you'll build your understanding of and relationship with your bird as you build a repertoire of tricks. You can get your parrot to jump through hoops for you—literally!

About the Author

Tani Robar is a professional animal trainer who has spent years training performing animals and teaching others to train their animals. She has been acclaimed for her ability to develop and perfect unique training methods that allow her students to teach their pets an almost unlimited variety of skills and behaviors. For the last fifteen years Tani has been putting on bird shows, giving lectures, and helping others to teach their birds to do tricks. Besides appearing on TV and writing articles on bird training, she has produced four videos/DVDs to help people visualize how to teach their parrots a variety of skills and tricks. These videos are sold internationally. She recently appeared three times on Animal Planet’s Pet Star TV show and won the top place on one of the segments with Cassie, her Black-headed Caique.
Tani’s outstanding results are obtained by knowledge and skill, never by cruel methods. The adoration her birds so obviously show is further proof of the worth of this kind of training. Her performing birds are also her companions and share her life, including sharing meals with her and her family.
Growing up with many animals, Tani found that the most interesting part of owning animals was training them. The first pets she can remember were bantam chickens, which she carried around with her, taught to come when called, and trained to pick at spiders discovered in the house. Soon the neighborhood dogs were coming when she called and were performing simple tricks she taught them.
Finally she got her own dog, a pint-size, wire-haired fox terrier, and they became inseparable companions. She started honing her skills, and soon the dog was performing an amazing number of tricks. She won her first contest at age seven showing all the tricks her dog could do at a pet competition. She never looked back. She has trained enumerable animals since then and won many prizes.

Diane Grindol grew up in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. She met a male cockatiel named Clement when she moved to Monterey, California, in 1982 and within a couple weeks acquired her own normal gray hen, which turned out to be a life-altering event. Dacey lived for twenty-two years and added her wisdom to many projects.
Diane wrote a pet column for the American Cockatiel Society for six years and produced a set of videos about Cockatiel care and breeding in 1988. She founded the Monterey Bay Cage Bird Club and was its program coordinator for ten years. She edited and published a companion bird journal, Bird World, for two years.
Diane traveled to Guatemala in 1993 with a UC Davis field biologist to observe parrots in the wild, an inspiring and treasured experience in her bird life. Since 1996 Diane has coordinated companion bird seminars in California, Seattle, and Chicago.
She frequently speaks to bird clubs and at national conventions or seminars. Since 1995 Diane has written a column for Bird Talk Magazine. She currently is the Web editor of BirdChannel.com for BowTie, Inc. Her other books include The Complete Book of Cockatiels, Cockatiels For Dummies, Birds Off The Perch, and Teaching Your Bird to Talk. Diane lives on the Monterey Peninsula, California, and shares her life with a small flock of Cockatiels, a Blue-headed Pionus parrot, and a guinea pig.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: Howell Book House (February 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764584618
• ISBN-13: 978-0764584619
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #123,174 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Animal Care & Pets > Birds

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tani Robar DOES IT AGAIN!, March 10, 2006

By 

Kristin Ford "George Ford" (Longview WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Parrot Tricks: Teaching Parrots with Positive Reinforcement (Hardcover)

It seems that anything and everything you read about Pet Parrot Trick Training all comes back to a common denominator. It's Tani Robar! This book is a MUST HAVE bible of information for any owner of pet birds from a little canary all the way up to a large Macaw.

Tani's writing style is fun to read and keeps you wanting to know more through the whole book! Many times reading throughout the book I said to myself " so that's how trainers do that! I can teach my bird that trick!" It kept me reading all the way to the end!

This book should be a required read for all bird owners. It gives so much insight to how birds think and behave to our actions!

You will love this book. Thanks Tani!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most Comprehensive Book on Parrot Training Available, April 30, 2006

By 

Ramona Delgado (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Parrot Tricks: Teaching Parrots with Positive Reinforcement (Hardcover)

I have known Tani for many years. Under her tutelage, I taught my birds the following tricks: a puzzle, mailbox, basketball hoop, wave, piggy bank, stack cups, stack rings....to name a few. She once told me that birds never forget what they learn and since I have been doing this for seven years or so, I have discovered that she is right!

This book has detailed instructions on how to teach your bird a multitude of trick behaviors: from variations on the retrieve (my personal favorite) to capturing behaviors to create what Tani terms "innovative tricks". There is so much information in this book that I believe it will become a classic for decades to come.

What Tani terms "trick behaviors" are really the basis for building a strong system of communication between you and your parrot. This is so vital to living with parrots as companion animals. Don't be fooled by the notion that these are just "silly tricks". The truth is that they are stepping stones to building a mutually interesting and enjoyable relationship between you, your family and your avian companions.

Just about anybody can teach their bird at least a few of these behaviors. The secret is patience and repitition. Once you start training, you will enjoy it and you will find that your bird will blossom from the attention and positive feedback.

I definitely recommend this book along with Tani's tapes and DVD's. This is one facet of building an interesting and long term relationship with your bird.

Mona Delgado
Seattle, WA

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Parrot training book, March 9, 2007

By 

Y (MO, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Parrot Tricks: Teaching Parrots with Positive Reinforcement (Hardcover)

If you're looking for a variety of tricks to teach your bird and good instructions for how to do them, this is the book! It ranges from the simple wave and kiss to riding bicycles and "playing basketball." I had seen a couple of rave reviews online but was a little skeptical until I looked at the book itself. It's been fantastic and has lots of little tricks to help you when you're having trouble. I have a sun conure, and while many have said they're not as quick as other parrots, he's learning like a champ!